Three Rivers' defense limited Sturgis offensively and the Wildcats captured the Class B district title with a 50-23 win over the Trojans Friday.

"We did the things we wanted to do defensively pretty much the entire night, in terms of pressuring the basketball," Three Rivers coach Jason Bingaman said. "We just weren't extremely patient down on the offensive end and we got out of our realm a little bit. Because our defense was doing what we wanted to do, they weren't able to get any big runs against us."

All-State candidate junior Teagan Reeves, who was a part of the Lady Wildcats state runnerup team as a freshman, was able to get the offense going for her team finishing with 27 points. Classmate Linsey Masnari added to the inside game with eight points.

"Teagan is a pretty good player and Masnari is a pretty good player and they know how to play with each other," Sturgis coach Brian Beebe said. "And not just those two, but as a team there were very few passes they forced in. The passes they threw in to those two were at the right time the majority of the time. It's to their credit. They're 22-1 for a reason."

Three Rivers will play Stevensville-Lakeshore at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the regional semifinals at Coloma. The Lancers edged the Tigers, 60-59, on Friday. The other half of the regional pits Otsego, a 36-34 winner over Plainwell, against Marshall, which knocked off Battle Creek Harper Creek, 40-37.

Reeves opened the scoring with a 3-pointer. Sturgis' Marissa Parker answered with a basket. After Reeves split a pair from the line, the Trojans' Rachel Anderson scored on a layup off a feed from Ariana George to tie the game, 4-4.

Masnari put the Wildcats back ahead, scoring on a short jumper off a feed from Clautia Pou.

The Wildcat offense finally got going late in the first period and was able to increase the margin to 14-5 after one quarter.

"I think a lot of it early on was the moment (district finals) and the situation where you just look at records and in terms of already beating a team early in the season, maybe you come in a little more overconfident than you should," Bingaman said of his team's slow start. "We weren't efficient with the little things like we were the first two nights this week."

Both teams played strong defense in the second quarter and Three Rivers was only able to extend the lead to 20-7 by halftime.

In the third quarter, the Wildcats were able to keep the Trojans scoreless for nearly five minutes. But the scrappy Sturgis squad stayed in the game by playing strong defense. After three quarters, Three Rivers led 32-12.

Page 2 of 2 - Sturgis was able to hit back-to-back triples early in the fourth quarter to keep the game interesting, cutting the deficit to 34-20.

"I thought our kids, just like Wednesday, didn't roll over," Beebe said. "We hit those two threes in the fourth quarter, and they (the Wildcats) kept their heads about them and they made plays in the fourth quarter when they had to."

A pair of steals by Reeves off the press got Three Rivers' offense clicking and quickly pushed the lead to 46-22.

"Down at the offensive end, once we were patient and got the ball where we needed to, we were able to get good looks at the hoop," Bingaman said. "Combine that with forcing Sturgis to play a little faster than they wanted to, we were able to get some transition buckets and we were able to separate."

Beebe hoped his team, which finished the season 6-16 after an 0-9 start, enjoyed their experience.

"All the credit is to them, they're a pretty good team," he said of the Wildcats. "I hope our kids don't hang their heads. We talked about going in to the game, to have fun and enjoy the moment. I had fun during the game, It's never fun to lose, but I enjoyed it. I hope my kids did to, to put ourselves in this position and to continue building something. And not just be a one year thing, but to continue building what we're trying to build."

Three Rivers will continue playing, but Bingaman saw a difference from the earlier Trojan team.

"We'll be able to look at film and see where we need to improve," he said. "But at the same time, this isn't the same basketball team we played at the beginning of the year. We jumped up on them 16-2 the first time we played them and they played with a little more composure early on (tonight), but I think our pressure started to wear on them in the second half."

George topped the Trojans with eight points, Nicholette Nelson and Parker each finished with five, Anderson added four and Taya Anding had a free throw.

"We had to deal with a lot of stuff this year," Beebe said. "We didn't start the same lineup back-to-back until the 11th and 12th game of the year. You multiply that with not having a senior, man that's tough. I'm just proud of the kids to put ourselves in this position this year. It's a lot of credit to them."

Pou added seven points for Three Rivers, Breann Lester ended with six and Marissa Wyngarden had two.

Reeves grabbed 11 rebounds and added six steals, five assists and three blocks. Masnari corralled nine boards, and had three blocks and three steals, while Pou tallied five assists and Lester had seven steals.